Industrial Relations in Greenfield Sites

There is a popular stereotype that at greenfield sites managers practice, and sustain over time new forms of human resource management and that in doing so they obtain highly positive performance outcomes. A persisting theme in this stereotype is that greenfield sites are characterised by a highly collaborative form of employee relations and that they are largely strike and conflict free. The aim of this paper is to test the stereotype by reviewing what is known about the subject. Existing research on greenfield sites is places within a broad conceptual framework, key issues are highlighted and gaps in our knowledge identified. The discussion in foreign-owned firms; how well greenfield sites cope with the ageing process; and the industrial relations and human resource outcomes obtained in greenfield sites. The review finds that most research ignores the last two issues. At present it is impossible to conclude with confidence that IR/HR practices adopted in these firms are any more effective than traditional systems. There is also little or no evidence about how greenfield site practices adapt over time. The review provides the point of departures for research being undertaken at the LSE's Centre for Economic Performance; the research agenda is briefly discussed.

The role of psychological distance in value creation

Purpose – The field of service research has devoted consider able attention to the customer's role as value creator, but there is a lack of research on understanding customers' psychological processes in value creation. This paper highlights the importance of psychological distance in value-creation processes. Psychological distance is the customer's perceived distance from service interactions in terms of spatial distance, temporal distance social distance and hypothetical distance. Critically, psychological distance influences cognitive processes and can influence how customers think and feel about the service interaction. An appreciation of psychological distance within service contexts can help managers to tailor the interaction in order to facilitate value creation. Methodology/approach – In this conceptual paper, we build on psychology research and service research to develop seven propositions that explore how psychological distance can operate within service interactions and how this might influence value creation. Findings – We divide the propositions into three sections. The first concerns how perceived psychological distance from the service interaction can act as a barrier to entering a service interaction. In particular, we consider the influence of social distance and spatial distance within the context of service interactions. The second section examines how psychological distance to the expected point of service use can influence how customers construe the service and the value creation. The third aspect addresses customer-specific characteristics that can impact on value creation by influencing perceived psychological distance toward the service

Erosion versus construction: The origin of Venusian channels

Lava channels are a common feature in the volcanic regions of the Moon, and have now been observed on Venus. There has been much debate about the origin of lunar channels as to whether they are the result of erosional (either thermal or mechanical) or constructional processes. It is necessary to determine the criteria to distinguish between the different types of channels. The clearest evidence is that the presence of levees indicates that the channel experienced a constructional phase for a period. One example of a channel of this type in the southeast region of Aphrodite Terra appears to show both erosional and constructional characteristics. It is approximately 700 km long with an average width of about 1 km. It drops a distance of 700 m from beginning to end, which means that the average slope is 0.06 degrees. Its source may have been a graben situated at the northwest end of the channel. It appears to have different origins along its length. The lack of levees near the source suggests that the channel is erosional in this region. The presence of levees indicates that a constructional phase has occurred. These are formed by lava repeatedly splashing over the channel sides and solidifying. Evidence of levees is seen further away from the source. However, the presence of levees does not mean that the lava was not also eroding and deepening the channel. Thus, in conclusion, our example channel is very sinuous and there is evidence of erosion. There may also have been overflow here. In its middle reaches it roofs over and has the characteristics of a lava tube. In the lower reaches there is strong evidence for the presence of levees indicating construction. On Earth, limited amounts of erosion may occur in basaltic lava channels, although not nearly on the same scale as on the planets just mentioned. For lava erosion on Earth to occur to a comparable extent, excessive eruption times are required. However, low-viscosity komatiite lava may erode to a larger extent and there is direct evidence that carbonatite lava erodes when the underlying strata is also carbonatite. Previously, it has always been assumed that for thermal erosion to occur the flow must be turbulent. Recent findings indicate that this may be a false assumption and that laminar flow may be effective in eroding the substrate

DScent Final Report

DScent was a joint project between five UK universities combining research theories in the disciplines of computational inference, forensic psychology and expert decision-making in the area of counter-terrorism. This document discusses the work carried out by Leeds Metropolitan University which covers the research, design and development work of an investigator support system in the area of deception using artificial intelligence. For the purposes of data generation along with system and hypothesis testing the project team devised two closed world games, the Cutting Corners Board Game and the Location Based Game. DScentTrail presents the investigator with a ‘scent trail’ of a suspect’s behaviour over time, allowing the investigator to present multiple challenges to a suspect from which they may prove the suspect guilty outright or receive cognitive or emotional clues of deception (Ekman 2002; Ekman & Frank 1993; Ekman & Yuille 1989; Hocking & Leathers 1980; Knapp & Comadena 1979). A scent trail is a collection of ordered, relevant behavioural information over time for a suspect. There are links into a neural network, which attempts to identify deceptive behavioural patterns of individuals. Preliminary work was carried out on a behavioural based AI module which would work separately alongside the neural network, with both identifying deception before integrating their results to update DScentTrail. Unfortunately the data that was necessary to design such a system was not provided and therefore, this section of research only reached its preliminary stages. To date research has shown that there are no specific patterns of deceptive behaviour that are consistent in all people, across all situations (Zuckerman 1981). DScentTrail is a decision support system, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI), which is intended to be used by investigators and attempts to find ways around the problem stated by Zuckerman above

On rigid origami III: local rigidity analysis.

In this article, rigid origami is examined from the perspective of rigidity theory. First- and second-order rigidity are defined from local differential analysis of the consistency constraint; while the static rigidity and prestress stability are defined after finding the form of internal force and load. We will show the hierarchical relation among these local rigidities with examples representing different levels. The development of theory here follows the same path as the conventional rigidity theory for bar-joint frameworks, but starts with different high-order rotational constraints. We also bring new interpretation to the internal force and geometric error of constraints associated with energy. Examining the different aspects of the rigidity of origami might give a novel perspective for the development of new folding patterns, or for the design of origami structures where some rigidity is required

New Rigid-foldable Developable Quadrilateral Creased Papers

This article extends the range of 1-DOF rigid-foldable developable quadrilateral creased papers. In a previous article, we put forward a sufficient and necessary condition for a quadrilateral creased paper to be rigid-foldable, and introduce a special sufficient condition that is convenient for practical use, generating quadrilateral creased paper by stitching basic units. In this article we develop new flat-foldable units and show how these can be used to construct a series of more complex rigid-foldable developable quadrilateral creased papers